Kaleo San Diego Church > Sermons > God's Will and Our Work

God's Will and Our Work

David Fairchild
Jun 13, 2004
Series: Philippians

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

INTRODUCTION

In these last 3 weeks we have discussed this consistent message which was given to the Philippian church from the apostle Paul. God intended this letter to be read not only to the believers at Philippi, but also to the believers in San Diego some 2,000 years later.

This theme that God has given to us through His Apostle is a theme of unity. This unity we have discussed is for the furtherance of the Gospel, the benefit of the local and universal body of believers, and as we read last week it is ultimately to the glory of God the Father as we live out what we believe in response to who Jesus Christ was, and is, and is to come.

All of this instruction has come to us in the shadow of who Jesus is and what He has accomplished; King Jesus who is victorious on our behalf.

As I mentioned last week, there are times when the text is so profound that a preacher who has his wits about him will naturally feel a sense of inadequacy and intimidation as he is given the responsibility of bringing to God’s people a well prepared meal, and I want you to always leave full, not hungry.

My challenge last week was trying to demonstrate to you how intensely profound the work of Christ was upon the cross, and how we are to view Him today as He sits at the right hand of the Father ruling in glory and crowned as King.

This week presents a different challenge for me as I am bringing to you only two verses, but those two verses are so meaty, so misunderstood and so emotionally debated that I have to repent before I preaching since I love discussing controversial issues.

Let me just state on the outset that I don’t think it is possible, if you remain conscious, to walk away without thinking through the implications of what I am going to preach from this text.

One thing I have chanted as a mantra is this: Ideas have consequences, what you believe to be true about God and man will have profound consequences in how you view God and how you live your life in or out of Him.

Any time we take on a discussion that has such importance historically and such debate from the early church until now, we should realize that we can’t just sit as observers on the fence. We must engage, and this engagement will have consequences, and maybe casualties from unbiblical past assumptions.

I also realize that this message needs to stay on track with Paul’s thinking. I can’t just pick a pet doctrine and ride it while stepping over the stream of thought that Paul was articulating to his beloved friends.

So I’m going to try to handle this in a couple of different ways. I’m going to discuss this from a general and practical perspective as we stick to good biblical theology, and then it’s going to be pretty obvious that I have to jump in and deal with the theological implications.

Any time your message includes topics like the distinction between justification and sanctification, the fear of God, and the role of God affecting our will, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure there are going to be some comments that don’t get full treatment and/or there may be some doctrinal issues that need to be discussed a little further. Either way, you have my email address…have at it!

Let me just ask if there is any greater topic that should wake us up from our breakfast coma, or our late night after effects than the topic of our salvation? If that is the case, I want each of you to jot down notes, keep your minds sharp, and listen carefully because this is critical for each of you to consider.

We’re justified before we’re sanctified. Our salvation is shown through our sanctification. In one sense our salvation experienced internally, to another it must be seen externally.

Understand Our Example

Verse 12- Therefore,…

This can be translated “so then” or “in light of,” and it references the previous verse. Any time we see the word “therefore” we should recognize that it is a conclusion drawn from an proceeding statement.

The statement was in reference to Jesus descent in coming into this world. He gives the perfect model of humility, submission, and obedience. Jesus didn’t cling to His equality with God the Father and demand His rights, instead He emptied Himself of His rights and exaltation. He took the form of a humble slave, He was obedient to His heavenly Father, even to the very point of death on the cross as a sacrifice for sin.

He served His Father’s will and was about His Father’s business through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the greatest example when dealing with how we live out our faith; we should follow His humility, His submission to the Father’s will, and we should obey what God has spoken to us through His word through the power of the Holy Spirit which dwells in us.

Understand We’re Loved

…my beloved,…

The second element of our working out or salvation, should be done with the reality that we are loved.

Paul is speaking to those that are his “beloved.” He comforts them by reminding them they are loved. Paul’s love reflects Christ’s love for His church.

Despite all their past sin, despite all their current imperfection, and despite all their future failings, the Philippian believers were Paul’s and the Lord’s beloved brothers and sisters.

I can think of no greater motivation for a Pastor to spend the time and energy He does in working with those God has entrusted to his care, and the necessary study and diligent pursuit of truth that he brings to God’s children, than that of love. This is why Drew and I do what we do, we love you.

In a day when this word is so loosely used to describe how you feel about ice cream and cars, it may not seem to be all that special. But the reality is that Drew and I labor for your souls because we love you with a love that is active. We protect you from wolves because we love you. We teach you the Bible because we love you. We give you Godly counsel which at times may be pleasant and at times feels difficult, because we love you and are compelled to demonstrate that love for you the way God has called us to; with our whole lives.

Understand Obedience

…as you have always obeyed,…

The Father’s command to Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration is His command to everyone: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5).

To preach the gospel is more than sharing our faith and offering an invitation to respond; it is to call sinners who do not follow God to turn and obey Him.

Jesus’ Great Commission includes the command to teach converts from “all the nations…to observe all that I commanded you.”

Obedience is essential to sanctification and cannot take place without it.

Understand Our Personal Responsibility

…not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,…

Even though Paul was hundreds of miles away, held as a prisoner in Rome, shackled to the elite Roman guards, he writes them to remind them that their spiritual responsibility was not to him but to the Lord. They were to obey God in spite of his absence.

This is where many of us have been greatly disappointed in our previous attendance of past churches, and may be even at this one. It is a disappointment that springs from placing too high of an emphasis of your dependence upon your pastor to determine your obedience to the Lord. I am not the Pope and do not wish that you kiss my ring, nor do I wish that you straighten your posture when I’m around.

Drew nor I can ever be the perfect example of pristine godliness. If that’s what you were looking for when you came to Kaleo, you were quickly disappointed. Our hope is that the more we teach you about Jesus, the more you will desire through repentance to follow Him.

We each have a personal responsibility to live a holy life. We each will stand before God and give an account of our actions, individually. No one will be able to argue that because their pastor or friend or relative or spouse was not there for them, they couldn’t press on.

Paul is aware of human nature and our natural inclination to blame others for our shortcomings and failures and so he reminds them that whether he is there or not, they are to live in such a way that they realize the presence of the Lord constantly.

Understand What It Means To Persevere

…work out your own salvation

Not work for, but work out your salvation. It is something already possessed which is why it says “your own salvation.”

Here is where the distinction of justification and sanctification are so critical. What Paul is saying is that these believers in Christ already have been saved (justified), are being saved (sanctification), and will be saved (glorification).

This has a past, present, and future aspect to salvation.

It is because of our position in Jesus that we can “work out” our salvation as we grow more and more in holiness.

1 Peter 1:15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."

This call to work out our salvation means that we are to “keep on working out to completion, to fulfillment, our salvation.”

Paul is making his case emphatic by calling say that it is “your own” salvation. This is not some passive “let go and let God” kind of statement. Paul is calling them to aggressively work this out.

Most of us spend more time sanctifying our car, our clothing, our homes, our bodies or our hobbies, and few take that same energy and apply it to working out their salvation and growing in holiness.

We resist the idea of growing in holiness because we naturally don’t want to be holy. Even when the clearest instruction is given to us we make excuses “I’m just not good at this” or “the reason why I throw plates is because I’m Greek” or “the reason why I punched him in the eye is because I’m Italian, or Hispanic” or whatever hot-blooded race can be used as a crutch, when the fact of the matter is that we simply don’t spend the time working this stuff out.

We would rather passively observe and make our growth in Christ mystical, or we grab hold of the things that are easy to master and then use that as a legalistic moral trap to catch everyone else in as we self-righteously try to remove their speck when we have a 4x4 sticking out of our retina!

Understand Our Posture

What is the posture that we are to take when we work out our salvation?

…with fear and trembling;

With phobos and tromos. Exceedingly afraid and quaking with fear.

How many of you can define for me what it means to fear God?

Have any of you here worked out your salvation in such a way that your fear of God kept you from sinning?

Paul makes a statement in regards to non-believers in Romans 3:18 when discussing why unbelievers do what they do and he says “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” In other words, they see no reason to fear God. How shocked would Paul be to know that the church has become as apathetic and repulsed by the idea of fearing God that they too see no reason to fear Him?

Does God get angry with me when I sin?

Does He still punish people today?

Does the idea of fearing God enter into my mind?

The bible calls us to love God, love His name, and His word a total of 88 times in the Bible. This is quite a bit considering He only needs to tell us once so that we listen and obey Him.

Then He calls us to trust Him, His name, and His word a total of 91 times! Obviously He intends we would trust Him since He mentions it so much.

When it comes to fearing Him, His name, and His word, God tells us 278 times to fear Him! He explicitly tell us to fear Him 278 times and them implicitly tells us to fear Him another 150 times. Over 420 times God calls those that believe in Him to fear Him.

Jeremiah 32:38-40

Let’s look at Jeremiah chapter 32. Jeremiah speaks of the new covenant that will be coming after his time. We see in verses 38 to 40. “They shall be My people, and I will be their God; 39 'then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. 40 'And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.”

We see the blessings described of those in this new covenant. We also see that the leading character of those that are in this covenant will be that God will place in them fear of Him. Those that are in Christ in this new covenant must have fear. If they don’t, either God is not accurate in His prediction, or the person is not saved. Those that are partakers of this covenant will be described as having God’s fear placed in them.

By who? By God Himself. Do you claim to be that has benefited from the Grace of God? Have you taken the Lord’s Supper? The dominant characteristic of your life will be that you are held by the fear of God. And if you are stranger to that fear, than you are a stranger to the new covenant as described in these verses. And you are yet in your sins and under the wrath of almighty God.

Just as this last statement seems so difficult to hear, God gives us comfort when we think of His faithfulness.

His Person

Verse 13- for it is God…

The first truth that comforts us in our sanctification is His personhood.

Most pagan deities are described as impersonal, remote, and indifferent. That shouldn’t shock us since they are figments of men’s imagination. They are created to appease the conscience of the idolater.

But the true and living God of the bible is real and personal. The bible doesn’t try to prove that God is a person because it assumes that reality.

It’s God who protects us according to His promise, His love, His forgiveness and everlasting grace through His Son.

With men, living a holy life is impossible, but as Jesus said "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).

This is not possible if God were not working in us.

His Power

…who works…

God calls us to obey, then through His sovereign power, empowers our obedience. He calls us to His service, then empowers our service, He calls us to holiness, then empowers us to pursue holiness.

His Presence

…in you…

God works “in” you and I. He has chosen that He would place His Spirit to dwell in us and that our bodies which is where His Spirit lives will be called temples.

Just as His Spirit dwell in the Tabernacle and Temple in the Old Testament, now it is no longer confined to a location, it is placed in each of us and through this God works His plan in our lives.

As we are called in verse 12 to “work out” our salvation, here Paul tells us that it is God who “work in” you.

His Purpose

…both to will…

God effects our will. Even though we would rather that nothing causes our will to move, the clear declaration from scripture is that there is always a cause to our will.

We would rather say that we have a “free-will” which essentially means we wish that our will had not outside causation. That it is somehow without effect from our nature and character. That it stands alone objectively and can choose between two choices equally. Unfortunately for those that hold to such a view, they have no support from the Scriptures for their assumptions.

The Bible is emphatic that we do have a choice, we do have a will, we are volitional creatures that God will hold accountable for the decisions we make. Yet the Bible never says that our will is “free” and autonomous. It never makes the statement that our will is free from the sovereign hand of God.

Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.

Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

Our will is always at the mercy of our character and nature.

Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

If you are still wondering what the answer is to the question, it is no! The fact is that without God’s intervention and holy intrusion, we would never choose Him, follow Him, obey Him, desire Him, love Him, esteem Him, fear Him, and we would never work out our salvation.

It must be God that works in us, and it must be God who causes us both to will…

…and to do…

Without God changing our nature and character by making us new creatures, without God causing us to will, we would never do anything towards His holiness. Any so called good work we do would only be self-loving, self-righteousness if it is not done towards worship to the God who made us.

What is the purpose for His instruction to us to work out our salvation, and His hand upon us to effect that change?

His Pleasure

…for His good pleasure.

It is all for the pleasure of our God. Not just pleasure, but good pleasure. Some of us don’t think we can ever please God. That is true if your sin has not been paid for by the blood of Jesus. That is true if you have not received God’s grace through faith in Jesus. But if you have, as God has made you holy and acceptable, as God has made you a new creation, as God has wrapped you in the righteousness of His perfect son, He receives good pleasure not only from your conversion, but also from your life.

We are a people that seek to please ourselves and others, but the supreme and only pleasure that should consume our lives is the God who first loved us. As we live to give Him pleasure, we experience it ourselves. Without pleasing God, all we have is temporary satisfaction, sugar highs, and tooth rotting sweets. The only pleasure worth considering is His, then and only then can we say we are truly pleased, and then and only then can we say we have “good pleasure” ourselves.